Empty classrooms as some schools reopen in Kashmir

NEW DELHI, Aug 19 (AFP): Some Kashmir schools re-opened on Monday but were largely empty following weekend clashes in Srinagar, two-weeks after India removed the restive region's autonomy and imposed a lockdown.

The authorities said that they were re-opening 190 primary schools in the city yet few children could be seen at half a dozen places visited by the news agency.

Pakistan meanwhile said Indian fire across their de-facto border on Sunday killed two civilians and seriously injured a child, a day after New Delhi said Pakistani fire killed an Indian soldier.

India on August 5 ended the special constitutional status of Muslim-majority Kashmir, where a 30-year-old uprising against Indian rule has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians.

Hours before its move, India severely curtailed movement and shut down phones and the internet, bringing in tens of thousands of troops to turn the main city of Srinagar into a fortress.

Some 120,000 extra soldiers have been deployed, a security source said, joining around 500,000 already in the northern Himalayan region divided with Pakistan since 1947.

After some easing in previous days, authorities on Sunday reinforced heavy restrictions after eight people were injured during protests.

The Press Trust of India news agency cited unnamed officials saying there had been clashes in a dozen locations around Srinagar on Saturday.

Around 20 per cent of landlines were working on Monday, an AFP reporter said. But mobile phones and the internet were still cut off.

In Srinagar on Monday most main streets and markets were deserted, although some roads looked busier than in recent days.

Some teachers and administrative staff made it to schools but many others didn't. PTI also reported that only a handful of children had come.

"We didn't receive an official notification for re-opening the school from the local government but opened it after watching the news yesterday," a senior official at Srinagar's Burn Hall School said.

Many schools stayed shut, with guards at the gate turning away any teachers or administrative staff who turned up.

"I don't think parents will send their children to school if they can't communicate and check on them whenever required," a resident of the Rajbagh area of Srinagar said outside the Presentation Convent School.

"I came here after watching the news yesterday but it doesn't look like any students have come to school today. There are many other teachers who stay farther away and haven't made it here," one of the teachers at a local school said.